Rauf Arifoglu: "Pashinyan could have stopped Vardanyan, but didn't want to"

"When Ruben Vardanyan made the decision to permanently move to Khankendi, the Lachin road was controlled by Russian peacekeepers. However, the political door for this illegal visit was opened in Yerevan. If Pashinyan's authorities had wanted to, they would have shown political will and stopped him. But they didn't. Because at that moment, Vardanyan's arrival in Karabakh was fully consistent with Armenia's policy."

This was stated by the head of the "Yeni Musavat" media group Rauf Arifoglu in a comment to BAKU.WS.

According to him, the move in September 2022 was by no means Vardanyan's first contact with Karabakh:

"Vardanyan had previously made numerous illegal trips to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, spent money on the separatist regime, and implemented various projects. Back in 2008, he participated in a mass wedding ceremony organized by separatists in Karabakh. And in August 2021, he came to the opening of a bakery that he financed in the village of Khanyurdu in the Khojaly district and urged local Armenians to remain in those territories."

"This means his subsequent 'move' to Karabakh was not a spontaneous decision. He studied the territory, identified his people, and built financial and political support structures. The decision to move was the final stage of this long-term preparation.

In those years when Vardanyan was traveling to Karabakh, Pashinyan was not portraying himself as a constructive politician who recognizes reality, as he does now. In 2018, he sent his son for military service in Karabakh. On August 5, 2019, in Khankendi, he declared: 'Karabakh is Armenia, period.' He considered the Armenian army powerful and believed he could keep Azerbaijan in indecision with the threat of a new war.

In such a political environment, why would they obstruct Vardanyan's trips to Karabakh? On the contrary, in those years, journalists, deputies from France and Russia, and diaspora representatives were shutt